"Bad" record nominees

[slide_advantage_redoux]

I have been nurturing a small section of my vinyl collection for sometime that is reserved for productions that were just plain weird.

I am morbidly fascinated with bizarre records. They aren't necessarily musical productions; just bizarre - mainly it is the cover that gets me.

I just picked up an LP at the local Goodwill entitled "Music for Washing and Ironing" on Epic - featuring the Somerset Strings. Wonderful tunes such as "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise", "I'll Be Around"..... not that I will ever drop a needle on it. It is just such an absurd concept for a record that I had to buy it. (and at $1.50, why not)

Probably the wackiest I have found is entitled "Bob's Marriage Kit". The cover is made to look like a briefcase. Now Bob seems to be a preacher of some repute, and he is doing his part to stem divorce rates apparently.

I just wish I had the ability to scan LP covers and attach them here. How do you DO that anyway??

Edited December 7, 2004 by slide_advantage_redoux

[Chuck Nessa]

Nuttin' to say 'cept good to see ya postin' again.

Is your cd still available? I mentioned it in another thread and had some interest.

[slide_advantage_redoux]

Hey Chuck....nice to see you.

Yes, someone emailed me awhile back wanting a copy, and he said that you gave him my user name here. Thanks!

Yep, I have some copies left. Also, it can be had through NorthCountry/Cadence still.

By the way, what is the status of those old masters that you played for us at Sangrey's house? If they ever are released, I wanna know about it!

ciao

Edited December 6, 2004 by slide_advantage_redoux

[paul secor]

That "someone" was me. Thanks to Chuck and slide for getting the CD to me.

[patricia]

One of my favourite albums falls into the catagory of strange and wacky collections.

It is "Matching Tie And Handkerchief". This was a record that included "The Cheese Shop", along with other off-the-wall bits by the amazingly hilarious Monty Python's Flying Circus. The cover had a large picture of, SURPRISE, a dark suit with a bright yellow with large red polka-dotted tie and pocket hanky. Love it!

Edited December 7, 2004 by patricia

[ejp626]

Definitely the worst album done by Jackie McLean is Monuments. I think AMG says something like this album caused Jackie to stop recording for 10 years. It's really something. It's sort of a disco-jazz-fusion thing. Most astonishing is that according to the liner, all the music was written and arranged by Mitch Farber, whoever he was. I guess I got it 'cause it was cheap and I wondered just how bad it was. It is bad, though it is still better than Sonny Rollins' Solo Album (this was discussed on another thread). The most amusing thing is the price history on the stickers. Most of the vinyl I get went to the cut-out bins, and then someone turns around and sells it for $15-25. In this case, someone tried to get $40 for it, before it ended up in the shop where I got it for $6 (and even that was a bit much).

Eric

[patricia]

In this case, someone tried to get $40 for it, before it ended up in the shop where I got it for $6 (and even that was a bit much).

Eric

I'll say. To think that that same $6 would have been a nice down payment toward a spiffy set of mink-lined long underwear, which would have amortized, in Chicago in the winter, over about a week.

Edited December 9, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

But, the all-time prize, at least for me was a record I bought, years ago, which looked interesting, when I saw it in the marked-down bin. It was called "Voices Of Haiti". I thought that it would be an exotic experience, expanding my mind and adding to my knowledge of the culture of another land. So, I plunked down my folding currency and took it home. WHAT A DUMB RECORD. It was minutes and minutes of meaningless noise and chants, indispersed with shouts and claps, none of it having any rhyme or reason. It was two tracks, one on each side of the record. There were no liner notes, no explanation of what it was that I was hearing. Did I feel dumb!!

[sidewinder]

I have a record in my collection by the Scottish band Talisker (called 'Humanity' I think) which was purchased after a very nice gig that they did. Great to see them live but the LP was another matter. It's very heavy on the moody celtic chants and manic electric bagpipes so has been relegated to the frisbee zone. Maybe I'll resurrect it one of these days as background music for a Robbie Burns supper..

[patricia]

Sidewinder, the question that plagues me is why we don't "frisbee" these dogs? I think it's because I'm reluctant to admit that I am so unsophistocated that I don't appreciate music[?] that was important enough to actually record.

I have had the "Haiti" record for decades and it is still in my collection, alphabetically, right after Herbie Hancock's "Quintet". Dumb.

I'll admit it right here. I just don't get "Voices Of Haiti" and never will.

[sidewinder]

I think I've always kept this one because there's always the chance that one day, I will actually 'get' the music and enjoy it. Sometimes it happens, for example the recent rediscovery of the Grant Green 'Am I Blue' Applause LP.

The 'Ken Hyder's Talisker' LP by the way gets some pretty good writeups in some places and will probably be re-discovered by Gilles Peterson some day as rare Celto/Scottish modal jazz vinyl ( ) so I guess I should hang on to it...

[patricia]

I think I've always kept this one because there's always the chance that one day, I will actually 'get' the music and enjoy it. Sometimes it happens, for example the recent rediscovery of the Grant Green 'Am I Blue' Applause LP.

The 'Ken Hyder's Talisker' LP by the way gets some pretty good writeups in some places and will probably be re-discovered by Gilles Peterson some day as rare Celto/Scottish modal jazz vinyl ( ) so I guess I should hang on to it...

See??? We vinyl aficianadoes are all a little crazy. That's what I think about the "Haiti" disc. I keep asking myself why I just don't get it. After all, it took me a while to move from traditional jazz to more modern interpretations. I keep thinking that this album may be a breakthrough in my understanding of music as a medium for human expresion. So far.....................it's noise. But there is sits, mocking me.

[Alexander]

One of my favourite albums falls into the catagory of strange and wacky collections.

It is "Matching Tie And Handkerchief". This was a record that included "The Cheese Shop", along with other off-the-wall bits by the amazingly hilarious Monty Python's Flying Circus. The cover had a large picture of, SURPRISE, a dark suit with a bright yellow with large red polka-dotted tie and pocket hanky. Love it!

"Matching Tie and Handkerchief" had one of the truly great gimmicks of the vinyl era: It was three-sided. One side was a normal LP side, but the other had TWO separate grooves. Depending on where the needle dropped on that side, you would hear one of two different programs. That was very cool.

The cassette had a funny little bit if you let the tape run at the end of side one. After a few minutes, Michael Palin came on and said something like: "Well, that's the end of the first side of the tape. Since one side of the tape is somewhat longer than the other, there will be a rather...tiresome gap in the proceedings until the tape clicks at the end." If you let the tape run, it would continue in silence until it reached the end. At this point, Eric Idle came on and said: "Well, we've come to the end of that rather tiresome gap. You can now turn the tape over, and listen to the other side."

Never having owned the CD edition, I don't know if it has a similar gimmick to the double groove on the LP or the "tiresome gap" on the tape.

[patricia]

Thank you Alexander, I completely forgot about that aspect of the LP. I'm so embarrassed. Considering that this is the only album on which I've ever seen this done, I can't believe I didn't mention it.

Edited December 14, 2004 by patricia

[alankin]

I have a record in my collection by the Scottish band Talisker (called 'Humanity' I think) which was purchased after a very nice gig that they did. Great to see them live but the LP was another matter. It's very heavy on the moody celtic chants and manic electric bagpipes so has been relegated to the frisbee zone. Maybe I'll resurrect it one of these days as background music for a Robbie Burns supper..

I'm pretty sure I'd like this Talisker release more:

Edited December 12, 2004 by alankin